Maytag Corporation

Jane A Albert

Douglas A Pohl

Richard D Smith, Jr

Warren F Johnson

Larry Edward Dietz

William J Vestal, Ii

Gloria J Corbin

A food storage system mounted in a fresh food compartment of a refrigerator includes an enclosure defined by inner and outer housings, as well as a food receptacle slidably positioned in the inner housing. The inner and outer housings are spaced so as to define a zone therebetween within which air is forced to flow in order to cool the contents of the receptacle. A tunnel insert is positioned in a mullion zone defined between fresh food and freezer liners of the refrigerator, with the tunnel insert being formed with a through hole for directing the flow of cooling air into the food storage system, a channel for directing an exhaust flow of cooling air from the food storage system out of the fresh food compartment within the mullion zone and an enlarged opening defining a return air passage for the overall fresh food compartment. The tunnel insert, within the mullion zone, channels the exhaust air from the food storage system to the return air passage. The channel is preferably defined by four walls, three of which are created by a groove formed in the tunnel insert and the fourth wall being defined by a portion of the fresh food compartment liner which seats against the tunnel insert. An air inlet cover is provided to extend over supply air openings formed in a freezer liner of the refrigerator, with the inlet cover including forwardly angled louvers to assist in directing a flow of cooling air to the food storage system.

Air flow for refrigerator food storage system

A refrigerated product storage system incorporates first, second and third vertically spaced storage sections carried by a unitary support frame attached to an inner wall portion of a fresh food compartment door of a refrigerator. In the most preferred form of the invention, the storage system includes an uppermost dairy compartment, an intermediate chill compartment, and a lower, slidable drawer. The chill compartment is provided with a door which is pivotably mounted about a vertical, inboard pivot axis, with the door being formed with a cut-out handle portion adapted to be aligned with a passageway formed in a partition separating freezer and fresh food compartments of the refrigerator. With this construction, a supply of low temperature air is directed from the freezer compartment directly into the chill compartment through the cut-out handle portion. The door of the chill compartment is provided with a latching mechanism, preferably an over-center acting latching mechanism. In addition, the slidable drawer cooperates with a locking mechanism, which is preferably located at an inboard, visually obstructed location to restrict access to the contents of the slidable drawer.

Refrigerator door storage system

A refrigerator door tray assembly is disclosed in which the inner door panel has opposite sidewalls defining a space, a tray having support surfaces on opposite sides of the tray and a mounting device to removably and adjustably attach the tray to the door such that the tray is located between the opposite sidewalls of the door and such that its position may be easily adjusted, or the tray removed from the door. The mounting of the tray on the door is accomplished by a plurality of ribs extending inwardly from the opposite sidewalls of the door, each rib having first and second rib surfaces which extend at acute angles to the support surfaces on the tray, and a third rib surface which extends substantially parallel to the support surfaces. The tray has, in addition to the first and second support surfaces, first, second and third tray surfaces on each opposite sides of the tray located such that the first and second tray surfaces may slidably contact the first and second rib surfaces of a first rib while the third tray surface slidably contacts a first rib surface of an adjacent rib.

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Monmouth, IL, United States of America

Jane A Albert